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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Fake MBA Gets You a Top Job

2011-04-24

When Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka's department appointed his friend as a top official at a bankrupt municipality, he did not just deploy someone without any local government experience.

Sicelo Shiceka

She had also just been fired - allegedly for incompetence and lying about her qualifications.

City Press earlier reported that at the end of 2009 Nana Masithela was deployed by Shiceka's department to the Madibeng council as its chief financial officer, at a salary of R80 000 a month.

She claimed in her CV, which the Madibeng mayor gave to the municipal manager prior to her arrival, that she had banking experience and an MBA degree.

What neither Masithela nor the department told the Madibeng council was that she had just been fired by the agricultural services group, Afgri, where she had worked as a credit manager.

Afgri legal counsel Pieter Badenhorst confirmed that Masithela's services were terminated, but he declined to give the reasons.

No proof

City Press has established from three former colleagues that she was allegedly fired for incompetence and for lying about her degree.

When Afgri asked for proof of the qualification, she failed to produce it.

Afgri human resources director Mulco Manyama confirmed that Masithela was employed there from November 2008 until the end of September 2009, but would not comment on the reasons for her dismissal.

A month after Afgri dismissed Masithela, Shiceka's department deployed her to Madibeng to address the bad financial state of affairs at the municipality.

Masithela slammed the phone down when City Press approached her for comment.

Shiceka's department did not respond to questions about why it had deployed Masithela to Madibeng and whether it had been aware of doubts about her qualifications.

The minister's spokesperson, Vuyelwa Vika, said the issue was part of a probe of Shiceka by the Public Protector.